Just before they got to the gates, they saw Judge Jimmy sitting on a bench in the shade of a huge mulberry tree. Next to him was a little girl with curly blond hair, one of his many great-grandchildren. They were throwing grains to a group of birds that had gathered round them and laughing at the way they pecked. Judge Jimmy had 10 children and always joked he had lost count of how many were in his “clan”. But he knew every one of his grandchildren, remembered everyone’s birthday and saw as many of them as he could, whenever he could.
“JJ,” called Molly.
“Hello, Molly. This is little Betsy,” he rasped. He’d had an illness years before that had damaged his vocal chords and he was completely hoarse, but he was perfectly well.
“You’re looking so well.” he said.
“Thank you. Always nice to get a compliment!” she laughed. “You’re looking well yourself, JJ.”
“Oh, I’m still pickled from all those years ago,” he joked.
Judge Jimmy had been a full-on gutter drunk in his 30s. He had left the family of 10 kids, “before they threw me out,” he’d said. He’d managed to get sober and had promised himself he’d only go back when he knew he could stay that way. He’d worked on the docks and managed to support his family, but he had free time on his hands. He’d decided to study law and joked that it seemed like an easy way to make good money. But he’d excelled in it and graduated easily with a Bachelor of Law. He was back with the family, and flourished.
He was lucky with his opportunities as an attorney and, always completely open about his past. It had never been used against him. He was nominated and appointed as a judge and, from then on, everyone called him Judge Jimmy.
Jonathan had met him many times on their park walks. They had often talked about the innovations he had instigated for prisons. He had experimented with painting prisons pink and giving prisoners pink uniforms. He had shown that it calmed much of the violence and unrest of the inmates. They allowed prisoners to work for real money. It helped them feel useful, and that they could give back to the community and help support their families.
The main change that Judge Jimmy brought in was to increase the opportunities for education and training courses. Prisoners learned new skills and how to live well rather than learning only more about crime, and it gave them dignity. Judge Jimmy thought everyone was a good being, but sometimes people made mistakes. He fought hard to set up programs and support to help prisoners reconnect. His aim was to increase their self-respect and to help them value themselves, to show them they were important.
Jonathan and Molly sat and chatted a while about Judge Jimmy’s projects.
“But it was more than pink paint, school books and self-worth programs that had such an effect,” the Judge said. “We got so many people out of the jail systems when most of the illegal drugs were decriminalized. Then there were the big pushes to properly look after the mentally unstable and the alcoholics. Ha, that should have been me in there, hey Molly? But, you know the big change that happened? Nearly put me out of business of course, but that was a good thing. Crime rates dropped, dramatically. Quite inexplicable. Molly has her theory of course.”
“Come on Molly, I love your theories.” Jonathan said.
“There was a change with the small things at first. It was subtle, but we started to see the ways that we all cheated, lied and stole in some way or another,” she said. “And people started to see that if they stole, they lost something themselves. If they told a lie, they in turn were lied to. If they hurt someone, they were hurt back. We finally got the hang of cause and effect; for every action there is a reaction; ‘what goes around comes around’. It started with more and more people taking real responsibility for their own everyday actions. It trickled through, until slowly we started seeing that crime rates were dropping. The small changes had affected everyone.”
They sat chatting about the importance of integrity and self-awareness, about the birds, how lovely the park was looking and how Judge Jimmy’s “clan” was. The little girl huddled up to the Judge, listening in to the conversation and throwing the occasional grain of corn to the waiting birds.
“Do you know Linorio, JJ?” Molly asked.
“Yes, of course. Remember how we met at that convention where he talked about the prison farm they set up in the jungle. Haven’t seen him for a while, but we talked on the Connect not long ago.”
“He’s disappeared.”
“That’s strange, how long ago?”
“About three weeks ago. We’ve set up a Notice Space group to see if we can find out what’s going on.” replied Molly.
“Last time we spoke we talked about a concern I have,” said the Judge. “There’s something happening. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’m retired now of course, and feed birds in the park these days. But I keep in touch with what’s happening. We are seeing crime rates rising. It’s not dramatic, but it’s happening. And I have my suspicions about some corruption at central administration. Nothing conclusive yet, but there are some things that don’t make sense. Linorio and I had a long talk. He said something strange at the end. He said, ‘It’s OK, I’ll fix it’. We laughed about it at the time. But now I think about it, he must be off on another one of his missions. I’ll check the Notice Space.
“And it looks like we’d better get going. This little one is hungry. She’s eating the birds’ corn,” said the Judge jokingly.
They said their farewells and Molly and Jonathan headed back to her apartment.